The U.S. economy has come a long way from the recession. The unemployment rate is now at 6.7%, compared with a peak of 10% in late 2009.

Of course many have pointed out that this ignores that the unemployment rate fell in part because many people left the labor force. But there is another disappointing trend about the job recovery the U.S. has seen.

Most of the job losses during the labor market downturn from January 2008 to February 2010, came from high and mid-wage industries.

Comments

Post a comment

Popular Posts

[There’s a nationwide organ shortage, but how long patients wait for a transplant can depend on how much money they have. "Out of pocket, liver transplants can cost more than $565,000... Transplant tourism also acts as a perverse incentive for hospitals in relatively organ-rich regions to maintain the status quo, since they benefit from transplanting well-insured, otherwise healthy patients who require less expensive care and survive longer, thereby boosting hospital ratings." *RON*]

Lisa Waters was 25 years old when, one day in 1995, she couldn’t raise her right arm without pain in her shoulder. Blood tests revealed she had a rare autoimmune liver disease, primary biliary cirrhosis, that can cause liver failure but can be delayed or even forestalled with medication. For the next two decades, Lisa took a drug, Urso, thrice daily and remained in good health. She rose through the ranks a…

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of three installments in a podcast series on American work produced in partnership with Open Source with Christopher Lydon, a weekly program on WBUR. In the final episode, we’ll consider policy solutions for working people that should be on the table in 2016. You can subscribe to the podcast oniTunes or Stitcher, or listen anytime at radioopensource.org.

Last week we spoke about the surprising history of the bloody, decades-long fight for a two-day weekend, an eight-hour workday, for pensions, worker safety, and a minimum wage.

[The Pentagon’s controversial $10bn JEDI cloud computing deal is one of the most lucrative defense contracts ever. Amazon’s in pole position to win—and its move into the military has been a long time coming. "'Bezos is smart for getting in early,' says the former intelligence official. 'He saw, There’s gold in them thar hills.'" *RON*]Sharon Weinberger, MIT Technology Review, 08 Oct 2019

In July, when President Donald Trump was in the Oval Office with the Dutch prime minister, he took a few moments to answer questions from reporters. His comments, in typical fashion, covered disparate subjects—from job creation to the “squad” of congresswomen he attacks regularly to sanctions against Turkey. Then a reporter asked him about an obscure Pentagon contract called JEDI, and whether he planned to intervene in it.

“Which one is that?” Trump asked. “The Amazon?”

The reporter was referring to a lucrative and soon-to-be-awarded contr…